Everything about George Stephenson totally explained
George Stephenson (
9 June 1781 –
12 August 1848) was an
English mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use
steam locomotives and is known as the "Father of Railways". The
Victorians considered him a great example of diligent application and thirst for improvement, with
self-help advocate
Samuel Smiles particularly praising his achievements. His
rail gauge of 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm), sometimes called "Stephenson gauge", is the world's
standard gauge.
Early life
George Stephenson was born in
Wylam,
Northumberland, west of
Newcastle upon Tyne. He was the second child of Robert and Mabel, neither of whom could read or write. Robert was the fireman for Wylam Colliery pumping engine, earning a low wage, so that there was no money for schooling. At 17, Stephenson became an engineman at a local colliery. George realised the value of education and paid to study at night school to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. In 1801 he began work at Black Callerton colliery as a ‘brakesman’, controlling the winding gear of the pit. In 1802 he married Frances (Fanny) Henderson and moved to Willington Quay, east of Newcastle. There he worked as a brakesman while they lived in one room of a cottage. George made shoes and mended clocks to supplement his income. In 1803 their son
Robert was born, and in 1804 they moved to
West Moor, near
Killingworth while George worked as a brakesman at Killingworth pit. His wife gave birth to a daughter, who died after a few weeks, and in 1806 Fanny died of consumption. George, then decided to find work in Scotland, and he left Robert with a local woman while he went to work in
Montrose. After a few months he returned, probably because his father was blinded in a mining accident. George moved back into his cottage at West Moor and his unmarried sister Eleanor moved in to look after Robert. In 1811 the pumping engine at High Pit, Killingworth wasn't working properly and Stephenson offered to fix it. He did so with such success that he was soon promoted to enginewright for the neighbouring collieries at Killingworth, responsible for maintaining and repairing all of the colliery engines. He soon became an expert in steam-driven machinery.
The miners' safety lamp
In 1818, aware of the explosions often caused in mines by naked flames, Stephenson began to experiment with a
safety lamp that would burn without causing an explosion. At the same time,
Sir Humphry Davy, the eminent scientist was looking at the problem himself. Despite his lack of any scientific knowledge, Stephenson, by trial and error, devised a lamp in which the air entered via tiny holes. Stephenson demonstrated the lamp himself to two witnesses by taking it down Killingworth colliery and holding it directly in front of a fissure from which
fire damp was issuing. This was a month before Davy presented his design to the
Royal Society. The two designs differed in that, the Davy’s lamp was surrounded by a screen of gauze, whereas Stephenson’s lamp was contained in a glass cylinder. For his invention Davy was awarded £2,000, whilst Stephenson was accused of stealing the idea from Davy. A local committee of enquiry exonerated Stephenson, proved that he'd been working separately and awarded him £1,000 but Davy and his supporters refused to accept this. They couldn't see how an uneducated man such as Stephenson could come up with the solution that he had. In 1833 a
House of Commons committee found that Stephenson had equal claim to having invented the safety lamp. Davy went to his grave believing that Stephenson had stolen his idea. The Stephenson lamp was used exclusively in the North East, whereas the Davy lamp was used everywhere else. The experience with Davy gave Stephenson a life-long distrust of London-based, theoretical, scientific experts.. This required the structure to be constructed as two flat planes (overlapping in this case by 6') between which the stonework is cut and angled to form a parallelogram shape when viewed on plan. This has the effect of flattening the arch and the solution is to lay the bricks forming the arch at an angle to the abutments (the piers on which the arches rest). This technique, which results in a spiral effect in the arch masonry, provides the extra strength in the arch to compensate for the angled alignment of the abutments.
The bridge still carries traffic (A57 - Warrington Road) and is now a listed building.
Later career
The next ten years were the busiest of Stephenson’s life, as he was besieged with requests from railway promoters. However, he didn't have things all his own way. Other talented men were starting to make their marks, such as his own son Robert, his pupil Joseph Locke and finally
Isambard Kingdom Brunel. His conservative views on the capabilities of locomotives meant that he tended to favour circuitous routes and civil engineering that were more costly than his successors thought necessary. For example, rather than the
West Coast Main Line taking the direct route favoured by
Joseph Locke over
Shap between
Lancaster and
Carlisle, Stephenson was in favour of a longer sea-level route via
Ulverston and
Whitehaven. Locke's route was the one built. Stephenson also tended to be more casual in estimating costs and paperwork in general. He worked with Joseph Locke on the Grand Junction Railway with one half of the line allocated to each man. Stephenson’s estimates proved to be inferior to those of Locke and the board’s impatience led to Stephenson’s resignation. This caused a rift between Stephenson and Locke, which was never healed.
Despite the fact that Stephenson lost some routes to competitors due to his cautious ideas, he was still offered more work than he could cope with. He was unable to turn down any offer for more work. He worked on the
North Midlands line from Derby to Leeds, the North Midlands line from Normanton to York, the
Manchester and Leeds, the
Birmingham and Derby, the
Sheffield and Rotherham among many others.
Stephenson therefore tended to become a reassuring name, rather than a cutting-edge technical adviser. He was the first president of the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers on its formation in 1847. He had by this time settled into semi-retirement, supervising his mining interests in Derbyshire - tunnelling work for the
North Midland Railway had revealed unworked coal seams, and Stephenson put much of his money into their exploitation.
Private life
Stephenson’s first wife, Fanny died in 1806, and his only son, Robert was brought up by George and his unmarried sister Eleanor. In 1820, George married Elizabeth Hindmarsh, a farmer’s daughter whom George had wanted to marry when he was young, but wasn't considered good enough for her. George and Elizabeth (Betty) had no children, and she died in 1845. In 1848 George married for the third time, to Ellen Gregory who had been his housekeeper. Six months after his wedding, George contracted
Pleurisy and died, aged 67, on
12 August 1848 at
Tapton House in
Chesterfield,
Derbyshire. He was buried at Holy Trinity Church, Chesterfield, alongside his second wife.
Descendants
George Stephenson had two children: Robert and Fanny. Robert was born in 1803 and married Frances Sanderson in 1829. Robert died in 1859 having no children. Fanny was born in 1805 but died within weeks of her birth.
Legacy
Britain led the world in the development of railways and this in turn acted as a stimulus to the industrial revolution, by making easier the transport of raw materials and manufactured goods. George Stephenson can't claim to have invented the locomotive.
Richard Trevithick, deserves that credit. However, George Stephenson, with his work on the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, paved the way for the railway engineers who were to follow, such as his son
Robert, his assistant
Joseph Locke who went on to carry out much work on his own account and the charismatic
Isambard Kingdom Brunel. All of these men, whatever feats they achieved, were following in his footsteps. Stephenson was also very farsighted in realising that the individual railway lines being built, would eventually join up, and would therefore need to have the same gauge. The standard gauge used throughout the world is due to him.
Stephenson memorabilia
The museum in
Chesterfield,
Derbyshire has a room full of Stephenson memorabilia, including the straight thick glass tubes in which he (inventive to the last) grew his cucumbers to stop them curving.
George Stephenson College, founded in 2001 on the
University of Durham's Queen's Campus in
Stockton-on-Tees, is named after him. Also named after him and his son is
George Stephenson High School in Killingworth, the
Stephenson Railway Museum in
North Shields and the
Stephenson Locomotive Society.
As a tribute to his life and works, a bronze statue of Stephenson was unveiled at
Chesterfield railway station (which is overlooked by
Tapton House, where Stephenson spent the last ten years of his life) on
28 October 2005, marking the completion of improvements to the station. At the event a full-size working replica of
Rocket was on show, which then spent two days on public display at the Chesterfield Market Festival.
Stephenson's portrait appeared on
Bank of England £5 notes between 1990 and 2003.
Further Information
Get more info on 'George Stephenson'.
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